The trial of Drew Peterson is about to begin.
The judge is very strict and will allow no cameras or recording devices in the
courtroom, nor will reporters be allowed to bring laptops, BlackBerries or cell
phones into the court building itself. There are a few brief breaks throughout
the day: one in the morning, at lunch and in the afternoon.

Plan how you’ll provide continuous trial
coverage online, in print and for mobile users—while still following the
judge’s rules

Before
getting started, choose a spokesperson for the group.

Group 2

Today is Monday, and on Wednesday, Apple is
expected to announce a major new product. It may be a rumored and highly anticipated
tablet that could revolutionize information delivery in the way iPods
revolutionized music distribution. You have reason to believe this is of high
interest to your readers, who live in an urban, mid-sized market. How would you
cover this over the next 72 hours online, in print and on digital platforms, if
you had three reasonably tech-savvy writers and one graphics artist at your
disposal?

Before
getting started, choose a spokesperson for the group.

Group 3

Take the business news budget on the other
side of this page and redo it to make it more useful for planning both digital
and print coverage. How would this real-life Chicago Tribune budget form need
to change to better serve a converged news-gathering organization?

Before
getting started, choose a spokesperson for the group.

Group 4

Devise a training plan to substantially
increase the digital IQ of your newsroom in 90 days. The goals of the training
are to improve your colleagues’ knowledge of social media, SEO, Google trends
and any other skills you think are basic requirements in a converged newsroom.

Before
getting started, choose a spokesperson for the group.

Group 5

You live in a large city, and the biggest
snowstorm of the century is expected to hit today at 3 p.m., right before the
evening rush. The mere anticipation of the snow event has doubled your web
traffic today. Plan out the next
36 hours of coverage on digital, print and mobile platforms. Maximum points for
creativity; let’s see how you would really blow out the coverage if resources
were no issue.